Pubdate: Mon, 05 Sep 2005
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Mark Forbes
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

FEAR AND FRUSTRATION, MODEL'S DAILY FARE IN BALI

Denpasar -- "IT'S like jumping into the lion's den and everybody trying to 
take a piece of you," says model Michelle Leslie to Norah Cullen, amid a 
legal and physical nightmare in a Bali police cell.

Ms Cullen, as much mother as friend, flew to Denpasar the day after Leslie 
was arrested for carrying two ecstasy tablets.

The Lebanese-born Sydney businesswoman was confronted too by the media 
circus that has enveloped her friend in the past fortnight. She found 
Leslie jammed into a cockroach-infested cell little more than two metres 
square with 12 women.

"She just grabbed me and said, 'Oh, Baj (the pair's nickname), please just 
take me home, I can't bear this'," says Cullen. "I just held her and she 
howled."

Every day since, Cullen has arrived at the police station at 8am carrying 
food and water and sits with her friend until sundown, holding her hand 
during police interrogations and escorting her through the media crush -- 
her arms and back bear vivid blue welts from tussles with local 
photographers. She has been Leslie's link to friends and family at home and 
a key player in the tumultuous legal manoeuvres that have beset the case.

In her only newspaper interview, Cullen speaks about Leslie's conversion to 
Islam, frustration at false promises of release and how her first lawyer 
coached her initial confession of ecstasy use and addiction. She, too, 
seems scared, eyes brimming with tears and voice choking at the plight of 
the 24-year-old model who came to stay in her spare room four years ago and 
remains part of her family.

Today Leslie sits in a cell covered with graffiti, scrawled reminders of 
other Australian victims of Indonesia's tough anti-drug laws. One reads: 
"Bali 9, caught with nine kilograms. Innocent, Ha! Ha! Ha!" Another is a 
faded plea: "Please don't judge me, just help me."

Cullen says: "It wouldn't have meant anything to me six weeks ago, it 
breaks my heart now."

It has been an emotional weekend, with Cullen's seven-year-old daughter 
wanting her home and Leslie pleading with her not to leave.

"I've got my children back home and I've got someone I adore like my own 
daughter sitting in a jail. "The other thing really mentally torturing her 
is the rumours, and all the other inmates have a chuckle, the police say, 
'You were in the paper today'. It's like a soap opera, like, stay tuned for 
tomorrow."

The pair are distressed at the controversy provoked by Leslie donning the 
Islamic hijab, in part a reaction to the aggressive media surrounding the 
daily walk from the cell to interrogation room. "That really bothered her, 
because I'm Islamic. She knows the religion.

"She's been part of my family for a long time and she wanted to convert. 
Big deal. People say she is modelling or whatever, but Islam says God is 
within you, it's what you choose. No one can judge you except God."

A year ago Leslie converted to Islam in a private ceremony at Cullen's 
home. "She didn't say to everybody, 'I've converted', it was a very 
personal thing for her." The publicity about her partner, Scott Sutton, 
heir to a car dealership fortune, has also provoked antagonism and 
complicated release efforts. "He's helped, but only so much," says Cullen, 
dismissing rumours of a $600,000 slush fund and saying Leslie is paying for 
most of her defence.

Sutton's and Leslie's parents have stayed in Australia at her and her legal 
team's insistence. "She doesn't want them to see her like this, she doesn't 
want them to endure the pain she's going through."

Cullen, who was in the room at the time, concedes Leslie did make a 
confession, but is emphatic she never claimed to be addicted to ecstasy.

She says the changes within the legal team and confused strategies have 
been devastating for Leslie.

"Your life is hanging in the hands of this legal team," she says.
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